Morale

A Modern British History

Daniel Ussishkin

Places military at the center of the emergence of liberal and democratic forms of governance.

Offers fresh perspectives on total war in the twentieth century.

Morale

A Modern British History

Daniel Ussishkin

Description

Arguably no nation is as closely associated with the term morale as Great Britain. Yet this concept that seems so innate to the British people was carefully cultivated within many spheres of modern national life.

In this first critical history of morale, Daniel Ussishkin asks how is it that modern Britons have come to regard morale as a category of conduct, vital for the success of collective effort in war and peace, and a mark of good, modern, and human managerial practice, appropriate for a democratic age. He narrates the intellectual, cultural, and institutional history of morale in modern imperial Britain: its emergence as a new concept during the long nineteenth century, its changing meanings and significations, and the social and political goals those who discussed, observed, or managed morale sought to achieve. Formalized as a new military disciplinary problem during the long nineteenth century, morale came to permeate nearly every civilian sphere of life during the era of the two world wars as a new way of managing human conduct. This book traces how it gradually emerged from a problem that was regarded as residual at best to one that was seen as the epitome of proper managerial practice, its institutional manifestations and promotion by myriad organizations and the social-democratic state, and its emergence as a potent political concept from Britain's social-democratic moment until the ascendancy of the New Right.

Daniel Ussishkin's Morale tells the history of concept central to the management of war, business, and civic society not just in Britain but in modern culture writ large.

Morale

A Modern British History

Daniel Ussishkin

Table of Contents

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction 1. Morale, Modernity, and British Social Imaginaries2. The Reformation of Conduct: Transforming Military Discipline in Nineteenth-Century Britain3. The Sources of Collective Action: The Emergence of Morale as a New Military Problem4. New Wars: Morale and Democratic Mobilization5. The Techno-Politics of Consensus: Morale at the WorkplaceEpilogue: Morale in a New (Neo-Liberal) Key? NotesBibliography Index

Morale

A Modern British History

Daniel Ussishkin

Author Information

Daniel Ussishkin is Associate Professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Morale

A Modern British History

Daniel Ussishkin

Reviews and Awards

"Once upon a time morale was primarily the preserve of military figures concerned with the fitness of Britain's fighting forces. But in this boldly original study of the meanings, mutation, diffusion, and migration of this all too slippery concept, Daniel Ussishkin offers a compelling analysis of the ways in which the management of morale came increasingly to permeate modern British society. Ranging broadly and effortlessly across the vast terrains of military history, industrial psychology, and the politics of citizenship in Britain's postwar welfare state, Morale is a conceptually daring book that takes a fresh look at the logic of governance in modern democratic societies."--Chris Waters, Williams College

"Morale, its management, its meaning, and its impact, has long been considered as central to collective democratic effort in wartime Britain. This original and provocative study provides a 'long history' of morale, tracing the concept back to the late nineteenth century and forward to the late twentieth century. Drawing on wide-ranging historical research, Ussishkin shows us how morale moved out of the military sphere to influence almost every aspect of civilian life, in peacetime, as well as in war."--Lucy Noakes, University of Brighton

"In Morale, Ussishkin takes a big, amorphous and undeniably significant concept and offers a transformative way of understanding its history. A study of great originality and merit."--Deborah Cohen, Northwestern University

"This bold and compelling book offers an insightful and illuminating history of a topic of ongoing importance to citizens of our modern world. Moving easily between the highly abstract and the deeply material, Ussishkin brings the lofty concept of morale if not down to earth, then vividly to life. A fascinating history as well as a historically grounded meditation on how civilian and military authorities--whether in the trenches or the workplace-have grappled with the mysteries and vagaries of human behavior."--Jordanna Bailkin, University of Washington

"Morale is a powerfully-argued, sophisticated, and compelling history of the birth, mutation, salience, and demise of a potent, enigmatic concept. Ussishkin skillfully traces morale's genealogy, from its later nineteenth-century military origins to its disintegration in the age of neoliberalism. Combining brilliant research, pellucid prose, and conceptual sophistication, Morale will be a major contribution to social, cultural, military, and political history."--Chris Otter, author of The Victorian Eye: A Political History of Light and Vision in Britain, 1800-1910